In this article written for The American Prospect, David Callahan offers a sustainable critique of the huge gaps of income and wealth in America today using findings of Leslie McCall‘s book, The Undeserving Rich.
Excerpt:
Progressives have typically attacked economic inequality on fairness grounds, arguing that it’s just not right that so much national wealth is funneled to the top even as millions struggle to get by. Americans are definitely open to this argument, especially during times like now when a warped, anemic economy is mainly just raising the yachts, and not the boats of ordinary people.
This is a key finding of Leslie McCall’s recent book, The Undeserving Rich, which carefully scrutinizes years of public opinion polls on inequality. The problem, though, is that when economic times are fairly good, the fairness critique of inequality tends to lose traction. We saw that in the late 1990s and also the Bush years. The yachts were soaring into the stratrosphere, but ordinary boats were also inching up just enough that it was hard to raise concern about near-record levels of inequality.
We could easily see this same movie again in coming years. Recent public concerns about inequality could quickly melt away if the economy cranks back up and modestly good times return. The fact that tens of millions of workers will still be trapped in low-wage hell while a sliver of Americans live better than the kings of old will seem like a minor detail. Remember, this is America, where people will seize any chance they get to blame themselves for their economic misfortune as opposed to larger systems or the elites who run things.
All this is why opponents of inequality need a truly sustainable critique of the huge gaps of income and wealth in America today — one that seems relevant in both good times and bad. Fortunately, such a critique has finally emerged in recent years — one which focuses on how inequality undermines growth and hurts everyone.
Read the full article by David Callahan to find out more about how inequality affects everyone’s economic fortunes in America.
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